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Psion May Look To Linux For The Next Big Thing
An anonymous reader points out this "interesting interview with Psion founder Dr David Potter. It explores the reasons why Psion sold their share in Symbian to Nokia and why Potter believes that there is good future for Linux on "compact" notebooks and the like. Guy Kewney is a very well respected commentator on technology, he's been doing for a long time and I've always found his insights to be pretty spot on.
"
They do Handhelds, right? I want a FreeBSD handheld. Cute mascot, established ports system, lots of support; FreeBSD has everything! :)
... just ignore me ...)
(Okay, I'm trolling
Features - Psion looks past Windows to Linux as Nkia buys Symbian
By Guy Kewney Posted on 09/02/2004 at 23:40
Ignore the comments about the value of Psion shares: concentrate on what Psion is going to do with all the money it got from selling its interest in Symbian. The answer is probably: "Linux portables" but we'll find out later this year for sure.
Guy Kewney
The problem with Symbian, for Psion, is very simple: wireless. Too much of it.
Symbian is the property of Nokia - and (to a lesser extent) three other phone makers, Panasonic, Siemens, and Sony Ericsson - and Psion thinks there's more to life than phones.
Exactly how much more, is something for which there are only clues right now. But the clues are pretty clear. First, we know what Psion Teklogix is actually doing already. And second, we know what Psion founder, Dr David Potter, is enthusiastic about.
"We weren't in control of Symbian," Potter told me. "But it is true in business, you have to focus; and Symbian's focus was wireless. We didn't control Symbian: we had a major stake, we had been powerful in directing the conduct of the company." The question is, where would Psion want Symbian to go in future?
Look at Teklogix. It makes a portable notebook PC. Nobody actually seems capable of believing it; but this PC runs Windows, not EPOC. EPOC, famously explained as "Eat Plenty Of Carrots" (with a straight face!) by Potter when it was first launched on the Series 5 hand-held, was a real-time OS which gave rise to Symbian. Has Potter given up on Symbian? Not at all! - he has a huge stake in its success.
But he has given up on taking it into computing. And instead, he's dreaming of Linux.
The Netbook Pro looks like an ordinary Windows notebook...
This isn't a secret. The hint is hidden in plain sight in today's official statement: "Future strategy: Broadening markets using existing products," it says.
And it goes on: "Psion Teklogix can leverage its global sales and support capability to expand into complementary markets such as field service and the mobile professional worker segment. The Netbook Pro with Windows CE, aimed at corporate users, was launched last August, and many units have been shipped for pilot trials from which feedback is encouraging. Additionally, there are positive results from a viability study of Netbook with Linux for professional users with specialist applications."
Potter: "We have some interesting developments and projects, which have filled out in terms of the research we've been doing. We believe there is an opportunity there! - we see it as going way beyond Microsoft, being much wider than that. We see Linux as being very interesting, not only in terms of technology, but also in market dynamics; lots of companies want to move in that sort of area when they buy equipment these days."
The key to Psion's involvement in Windows CE, is simply that it's a much more compact, responsive, and more mobile environment than Windows XP. And Linux, they think, is even more so. The irony, of course, is that when Motorola pulled out of Symbian late last year one of the reasons it gave was its desire to launch a Linux phone. But Psion won't - actually, can't - compete with Symbian in phones. Instead, it sees the value of Linux as giving the world a smaller, more reliable and more portable personal computer.
David Potter
The hand-held market right now is in the doldrums. "When Microsoft first said they'd blow us out of the water was 1990," reminisced Potter. "It's gone through many morphings, with Winpads and so on; but they haven't really understood the market a hundred percent. Even today, they don't understand that the cellphone industry is predominantly a consumer market."
Potter reckons the typical corporate executives - buyers of PDAs, of course - account for 5% to 6% of the world market. "That's why Microsoft haven't had traction. They're learning, and may be they will learn what it's about, but it's amazing how long
Beware the psychokinetic mimes!
That other Canopy company has a very nice small-system interface an application toolkit available for Linux. In fact, a certain top-selling Japanese PDA is based on it.
Linux + QTopia would certainly be better than, say, BREW. I hope it takes off.
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
...on Sourceforge here, screenshots here.
The mailing list seems pretty active, which is usually a good sign...
The Army reading list
Psion has real, studied experience at making handheld products. If they were to sit down with Linux and attempt to adapt it to a product appropriate for handhelds-- meaning in an APPROPRIATE USABILITY sense, not meaning in a "uhh X will start on it" sense-- the result would be an extremely valuable asset from the perspective of the Linux community.
-- Super Ugly Ultraman
Do you hear that Mr. Gates? That is the sound of inevitability.
Who do you get to be an expert to tell you something's not obvious? The least insightful person you can find? -J Roberts
I can only hope that they update/bring back the Psion 5 series form factor. I still use, and love, my Psion 5mx every single day. IMO, the Psion design represents a near-optimium compromise for a handheld machine: usable keyboard, large display, high portability, and reasonable connectivity/expansion.
But, above all, the old Psions have outstanding battery life. If anything, the 5mx got more battery life than the original 5, despite a 2X boost in both RAM and clock speed. I routinely get more than 30 hours of actual usuable on-time. This means I can take the thing on any business trip without worrying about batteries. And the fact that it uses standard AAs means I can replace the batteries anywhere anytime (no looking for an outlet, carrying a wallwart, getting international adapter plugs, or worrying about declining recharge life as the PDA ages). So even if I had to worry about batteries, I don't have to worry about batteries.
I hate hate hate the fact that all the "newer" and "more advanced" PDAs have a no usuable keyabord and horrible battery life. Technology is supposed to improve!
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Hmmm...
More like
60's == Computer Science boom
70's == IT and second CS boom
80's == PC Boom... Microsoft popularizes shrinkwrap EULAs... dark ages begin. Real comp sci pushed into back rooms of academia.
00's == 70's technology explodes from academia into PC industry... 80's era corporations fight to return to lucrative IT dark ages.
It has been clear since the late 1990's that Linux in its many variations represents the future of the operating system as a technology.
There is of course a huge vested interest in trying to delay and/or stop this process, but it is - obviously, to me - already unstoppable. We are watching the elimination of all incompatible operating systems one by one, much as we watched TCP/IP eliminate a slew of different network protocols in the 1980's and 90's.
Linux is portable and can quickly operate any new system out there. Any vendor using Linux thus has access to a pool of applications that is already large, and growing.
Linux is stable so that applications built 10 years ago still run easily. If I can run Apache on my PDA it's not because someone sweated blood and tears to strip the code down. It's because the OS has done its job.
Linux is open, meaning that no single group can divert it into suboptimal directions. We all know how commercial interests often conflict with basic operational efficiency. Free of these conflicts, Linux is already incredibly plastic, and becoming more so. Beowulf. Knoppix. Technologies made by one or two people, able to change the basic rules of computing. Impossible with a commercial OS but natural with Linux.
Linux has, in essence, demonstrated that the "operating system" as a problem has been solved, and well solved. People will still pay for their OS software for a long time to come, but now it is down to attrition. Windows will conquer no new platforms, not a single one. Linux will take them all, one way or another.
So, Linux for hand-helds (and BTW, I deeply covet those Psion Netbooks) makes perfect sense, but not because of anything to do with the handheld format. Linux makes sense for the hand-held for the same reason that TCP/IP makes sense for the hand-held. How else are you going to do business in the 21st century?
Ceci n'est pas une signature
I carry a Zaurus 5500 (which needs to be charged every 5 minutes). It runs linux. That was part of why I liked it. But more, Mom would never KNOW it runs linux. And that's good. Especially on handhelds, its about the apps. Whether it's on Palm or Psion or the Z, bad apps make the thing useless.
So how did Psion blow it?
Well, if you wanted to develop (beyond the scripting language), you had to give Psion lots of money for the devel package. It was defended on the boards: "They have a right to make money" blah blah blah.
The PALM came out and dev tools were RIGHT THERE. For free. Sure if you wanted an IDE, you'd blow <US$70 on the stuff to plug into your dev env. But you could right binaries for it without that, you could EMULATE the psion on Mac, PC and several *nix's.
That, combined with no brainer syncing helped the Palm take off. First, hundreds of useful utilities appeared for free. Harmful to 3com? Well ... no. They sell hardware. Hardware is more useful when more people have them and develop for them. Fancy apps don't generally come out of OpenSource, so there was a market. But handy util's (mileage trackers, shopping lists, etc) appeared instantly.
Contrast with Psion
Sure, I can sync it: how many extra software packages and cables (different for each Psion) do I own to backup the bastard? How many variations on small proprietary storage devices?
Sure I can get programs for it.
On cards (only 2 in the machine at a time). Which were often ok, not great. But they were too often islands. I know 3 people who ever had Psions. And I'm a geek. I know about 100 people with Palms these days.
What do I miss in the Zaurus?
I loved that I could press the PHONE button on the psion and it would emit touch tone. I made a call when visiting mom. Looked up the number, held it to the phone and pressed DIAL. Mom looked up at the sound and, after a couple seconds realized what I'd done. "God, that's so lazy..." Sure,,but I never misdialed numbers and it worked for my answering machine when NYNEX was disabling touch tones after the call went through on their payphones.
I miss the battery life.
I don't miss that the free software was mediocre and that the pay software was also not stellar (for lots of money).
I don't miss buying cards for that one model.
CF's boot a couple computers, feed the zaurus and work the camera.
BSD? Linux? who cares? :)
You don't buy it for the OS (though ssh'ing to it is killer). OPEN SOURCE is good. It means that people can use and extend it. Try that with VxWorks or Wince.
For flamebait, I find that most BSD developed software runs on any unix, but not so with too much software developed on Linux. That's not a reflection on the kernel/OS, but more a reflection on the professional maturity of the developers. There aren't that many fresh faced newbies that find BSD first. (but it's dead anyway and has been for 15 years
I still use my 'ancient' Series 5 for working on the move because A: it fits in a pocket; B: I can touch-type on it; C: it uses two AA batteries that last for ages; D: I can pull out the flash card and drop files straight onto my Mac; E: it has a decent programming language (OPL) built in; F: it's been pretty rugged so far, going around the world with me; G: the built-in office package is solid enough for most tasks. Every time I see a co-worker pecking away at a PDA trying to enter text with a stylus, it makes me wonder what they can accomplish there that a 50p notebook and pen couldn't.
But then, that's the British technology story all over. We come up with great and novel ideas, then botch the actual selling of them and allow everyone else to take over. I shouldn't be surprised by it any more.
You must think in Russian.